Class X:History [Ch-1 Nationalism in Europe]

Frédéric Sorrieu vision of World

Frédéric Sorrieu, a French artist, in 1848 prepared a series of four prints visualising his dream of a world made up of democratic and Social Republics.

1. The first print shows the people of Europe and America marching in a long train and offering homage to the Statue of Liberty as they pass it. The torch of Enlightenment was carried by a female figure in one hand and the Charter of the Rights of Man in the other.

2. On the earth in the foreground lie the shattered remains of the symbols of absolutist institutions.

3. In Sorrieu’s utopian vision, the people of the world are grouped as distinct nations, identified through their flags and national costume.

4. The procession was led by the United States and Switzerland, followed by France and Germany. Following the German people are the people of Austria, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, Lombardy, Poland, England, Ireland, Hungary and Russia.

5. From the heavens above, Christ, saints and angels gaze upon the scene. They have been used by the artist to symbolise fraternity among the nations of the world.

During the nineteenth century, nationalism emerged as a force which brought huge changes in the political and mental world of Europe. The end result of these changes was the emergence of the nation-state.

The nation state was one in which the majority of its   citizens and not the rulers came to   develop a  sense of common identity.

The French Revolution and the Idea of the Nation

1. In 1789 Nationalism came with the French Revolution and the political and constitutional changes led to the transfer of sovereignty from the monarchy to a body of French citizens. 

2. Various measures and practices were introduced such as the ideas of la patrie (the fatherland) and le citoyen ( the citizen).

3.  A new French flag, the tricolour was chosen to replace the former one.

4. Democracy destroyed in France by Napoleon and the Civil Code of 1804 known as Napoleonic Code did away with all privileges based on birth, established equality before the law and secured the right to property.

The Making of Nationalism in Europe

Germany, Italy and Switzerland were divided into kingdoms, duchies and cantons whose rulers had their autonomous territories.

The Aristocracy and the New Middle Class

1. The Aristocracy was the dominant class on the continent politically and socially. 

2. The majority of the population was made up of the peasantry. 

3. Industrialisation began in England in the second half of the eighteenth century. 

4. New social groups came into being: a working-class population and middle classes made up of industrialists, businessmen, professionals.

What did Liberal Nationalism Stand for?

1. The term ‘liberalism’ derives from the Latin root liber, meaning free. 

2. The right to vote and to get elected was granted exclusively to propertied men. 

3. Men without property and all women were excluded from political rights.

4. In 1834, a customs union or zollverein was formed at the initiative of Prussia and joined by most of the German states. 

5. The union abolished tariff barriers and reduced the number of currencies from over thirty to two.

A New Conservatism after 1815

• In 1815, European governments were driven by a spirit of conservatism. Conservatives believed in monarchy, the Church, social hierarchies, property and that the family should be preserved.

• A modern army, an efficient bureaucracy, a dynamic economy, the abolition of feudalism and serfdom could strengthen the autocratic monarchies of Europe.

• In 1815, representatives of the European powers – Britain, Russia, Prussia and Austria met in 00 for Europe.

• The Bourbon dynasty was restored to power and France lost the territories it had annexed under Napoleon.

• The major issues taken up by the liberal-nationalists, who criticised the new conservative order, was freedom of the press.

 

The Revolutionaries were instrumental in spreading nationalism. The revolutionaries opposed monarchical forms & fought for liberty & freedom. They founded secret societies. One such notable  revolutionary was Italian Giuseppe Mazzini.

1. He was born in Genoa 1807.

2. He became a member of the secret society of the Carbonari and also fought for the unification of Italy.

3. As a young man of 24 , he was sent to exile in 1831 for attempting a revolution in Liguria.

4.  Later he founded Young Italy in Marseilles and Young Europe in Bern

5. Mazzini believed that God had intended nations to be the natural  of mankind.

The period between 1830-1848 was a period of revolutions throughout Europe such as the Italian & German states , the provinces of the Ottoman Empire, Ireland & Poland Following Points kept in mind:

• The first upheaval took place in France in July 1830. The bourbon kings were overthrown by liberal revolutionaries who installed a constitutional monarchy with Louis Philippe  at its head. ‘When  France sneezes, ‘ Metternich once remarked , ‘ the rest of Europe catches cold’.

• The July revolution of France sparked an uprising in Brussels which led to Belgium breaking away from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands.

• The revolutionary nationalism in Europe sparked off a struggle for independence amongst the Greeks which began in 1821. 

• Poets and artists mobilized public opinion to support its struggle against the Muslim empire.

• The Treaty of Constantinople of 1832 recognized Greece as an independent nation.

ROLE OF CULTURE (ROMANTICISM)

Culture played a vital role in creating the idea of nation – art & poetry, stories and music and shaped nationalist feelings. Romanticism artists and poets criticised glorification of reason & science & emotions, institutions and mystical feelings were encouraged. Their effort was to create a sense of a shared collective heritage, a common cultural past, as the basis of a nation.

·         German Philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803) claimed that true German culture was to be discovered among the common people –das volk. It was through folk songs, folk poetry and folk dances.

·         The emphasis on vernacular language and the collection of local folklore  was not to recover an ancient national spirit but also to carry the modern nationalist message to large audiences who were illiterate.

·         Even though Poland no longer existed as an independent territory , national feelings were kept alive through music & language.

·         Karol Kurpinski, for example, celebrated the national struggle through his operas and music .

·         Language too played an important role in developing the nationalist sentiments.

·         After the Russian occupation , the Polish language was forced out of schools & the Russian language was imposed everywhere.

·         Many members of the clergy in Poland began to use language as a weapon of national resistance.

·         Polish was used for Church gatherings and all religious instructions.

·         As a result, a large no. of priests & bishops were put in Jail or sent to Siberia by the Russian authorities as punishment for their refusal to preach in Russia.

·         The use of Polish came to be seen as a symbol of the struggle against Russian dominance

During the first half of the 19th century , there was an enormous increase in population all over Europe. People from rural areas migrated to the cities for employment. In town, small producers had to face stiff competition from imports of machine-made goods from England. This was done ,particularly in,  textile industry also. In those regions where aristocracy still enjoyed power, peasants groaned under the burden of feudal dues and obligations. In 1848 , food shortages and widespread unemployment brought the population of Paris out on the roads. These hardships faced by the common people united them and inspired the feelings of nationalism in them.

 In 1845, weavers in Silesia had a revolt against contractors ,who supplied them raw material & gave them orders for finished textiles but drastically reduced their payments.

  The journalist Wilhelm Wolff described the events in Silesian village as follow:

• On 4 June at 2p.m  large crowd of weavers emerged from their homes and marched in pairs up to the mansion of their contractor demanding high wages

•  Another group broke into the storehouse and plundered it of supplies of cloth which they tore to shreds.

• The contractor fled with his family to a neighbouring town , which however refused to shelter.

• He returned 24 hours later having requisitioned the army, eleven wears were shot dead

UNIFICATION OF GERMANY-

1. The second phase of unification began with the efforts of Bismarck in Prussia.

2. This liberal initiative to nation building was , however, repressed by the combined forces of the monarchy and the military supported by the landowners of Prussia.

3. From then , Prussia took on the leadership of the movement for national unification and its chief minister Otto Von Bismark was the architect of this process.

4. Three wars over seven years with Austria, Denmark and France ended in Prussian victory and completed the process of unification.

5. In January 1871, the Prussian king, William I ,was proclaimed as German Emperor in a ceremony held at Versailles.

UNIFICATION OF ITALY-

Italians were scattered over several dynastic societies as well as the multinational Habsburg Empire.During the nineteenth century, Italy was divided into seven states,out of which only one Sardinia –Piedmont , was ruled by an Italian Princely House.

1. During the 1830s, Guisippe Mazzini had sought to put together a programme for a unitary Italian Republic, and had formed a secret society called Young Italy.

2. The failure of revolutionary uprisings both in 1831 and 1848 meant that the mantle now fell on Sardinia –Piedmont under its KING  VICTOR  EMMANUEL II to unify the Italian States through war.

3.    Through a tactful diplomatic alliance with France engineered by chief minister Cavour,Sardinia Piedmont succeeded in defeating the Austrian Forces in 1859.

4.    A large number of armed volunteers under the leadership of Giuseppe Garibaldi marched in the South Italy and Kingdom of Two Sicilies and succeeded to drive out the Spanish Rulers.

5.    In 1861 Victor Emmanuel II was proclaimed king of United Italy.

VISUALISING THE NATION-

During the French Revolution, artists used the female allegory to portray ideas such as Liberty, Justice and the Republic.

1. Female allegories were invented by artists in the nineteenth century to represent the nation.

2. In France she was Christened Marriane which underlined the idea of a people's nation.

3. Statues of Marriane were erected in public squares to remind the public of the national symbol of unity and to persuade them to identify with it.

4. Marriane images were marked on coins and stamps.

5. Similarly, Germania became the allegory of the German nation, wearing a crown of oak leaves as oaks as the German oaks stands for heroism.

NATIONALISM  AND IMPERIALISM-

The Balkan region during 1871 comprised modern day states like Romania, Bulgaria , Albania, Greece, Macedonia, Croatia , Bosnia-Herzegovina, Slovenia, Serbia and Montenegro. Its inhabitants were known as Slavs.

1. A large part of the Balkans  was under the control of the Ottoman Empire.

2. The spread of the ideas of nationalism in the Balkans  and the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire made this area very explosive.

3. The Balkan people based their claims for independence and used their history to prove that they had once been independent, and so wanted their long lost independence back.

4. The Balkan states were very jealous of each other .

5. During this period there was intense rivalry among the European powers(Russia,Germany,England,Austro-Hungary) as they were keen on extending their control over the area.

6. This led to a series of wars in the region and finally the First World War happened.

 

Towards the last quarter of the 19 th century, nationalism could not retain its idealistic, liberal and democratic sentiments.

Intolerance among the nationalists emerged and they were always prepared for the wars  to achieve their personal goals.

Nationalism came to be identified with increasing control over more territories and came to be known as imperialism.

The examples of the Balkans can be best analysed for such situations in Europe by the end of the 19th century.